“These people are at most playing mock competitions with SUG and their own Team Two. No matter how much they play, they are just two lousy players playing chess. The more they play, the worse they will become. There won’t be much improvement.”
“Alright, everyone, stop staring at FV Club. The group competition will officially begin tomorrow. Everyone, maintain yourselves in tip top state and show the results of our mock competition.”
“We might not be able to win against the strong teams like FRY now, but we’ve improved since the beginning. Our grouping this time is still alright. Everyone should follow the rhythm and routine of the training competition and fight steadily. It’s not a problem for the team to qualify for the top eight.”
On the way back to the hotel, the team leader cheered them on, afraid that their mentality would be affected.
Ever since they came to Los Angeles, the FV Club seemed to be intentionally or unintentionally messing with the mentality of the members of these two clubs.
They took business class, stayed in a luxurious five-star hotel, booked the second floor in an internet cafe, hired a mini bus and bodyguards to take care of them all the way. What was even worse was that the three photography brothers worked extremely hard. Apart from taking photos, they edited videos every day. They never stopped posting on the official Weibo of FV Club with at least three or four posts a day.
The official Weibo was completely unmoved even though many people were criticizing it. They would update it however they wanted. At most, they would just block the haters.
In the end, the haters got tired of it and gathered their strength. They would wait for FV Club to lose before they started flaming it with all their mights again.
After training for the past few days, the other two clubs felt a little sour seeing the members of FV Club enjoying themselves.
It was the same today. It was already early in the morning. The breeze on the street was slightly chilly, and everyone subconsciously quickened their steps.
One of the team members suddenly thought of something and said, “Hey, will the FV Club stay in our hotel starting today?”
The competition would officially begin tomorrow. Finger Games would provide food and accommodation for all the participating clubs.
The food and accommodation fees for these two clubs had been paid for by Long Yu Corporation. They thus checked into rooms provided by Finger Games this afternoon.
What’s more, the other clubs had also arrived during the past two days and checked into Courtyard by Marriott.
Logically speaking, the members of FV Club should have been changed over, right?
Finger Games provided food and accommodation. If they did not change over, wouldn’t all the money be wasted?
The other members had obviously not thought about this question before. They looked at each other, their eyes revealing a hint of anticipation.
That’s right, there was no reason not to move in!
It was fine if they had to pay for their own luxury hotels previously. Now that Finger Games was providing food and accommodation, were they going to continue paying out of their own pockets?
Wasn’t that too extravagant?
If everyone stayed in the Courtyard by Marriott together, everyone’s food and accommodation conditions would be the same. FV Club might still have the minibus and bodyguards, but the impact on the mentality of the other two clubs would be slightly reduced.
However, before everyone could finish their beautiful dreams, they saw the black minibus drive by. It was still parked in front of the entrance of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
The members of FV Club alighted from the car and entered the hotel lobby. They did not even look at Courtyard by Marriott.
Obviously, FV Club would stay there during the competition and would not move to Courtyard by Marriott.
Their hopes were dashed.
The members of the two clubs quietly entered the lobby of Courtyard by Marriott. Their hearts, which had finally calmed down, were shaken again…
…
…
December 29th, Thursday, 9 AM…
It was 11 AM in Los Angeles, which was 3 AM in China. IOI’s global finals were about to officially begin.
The members of FV Club were doing basic fitness training in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel’s gym.
After arriving in Los Angeles, the team members maintained good fitness habits. It was precisely because of their regular working hours and good physical conditions that they could maintain a better state and focus. They trained longer and were more efficient every day.
The accompanying team doctor watched the team members’ condition seriously from the side to prevent them from practicing too much.
Working out now was not to train to the point of exhaustion or to increase muscles after all. It was just to maintain the body in a good state and increase the focus in the competition. It was enough to move their body. If one was too tired, it would affect the training effect.
The team doctor had to ensure that the team members were in their best condition.
In the hotel’s resting area, the coach and the data analysis team were studying the competition that was about to begin today.
The competition schedule this time was a little strange because they had to ensure that the first seed of each division would make it to the top eight.
There were a total of 12 teams and four groups in the group stages. They would play the double loop BO1, and the first team from each group would qualify.
There would be a total of four days. From Thursday to Sunday, with six matches a day. On Sunday, the group stages would all be finished and the top eight would draw lots.
As for why the first match was held at 11 AM, no one knew.
According to the GPL’s habits, they would usually play during the prime time from afternoon to night. However, Finger Games probably took into account that there were too many audience members. They were afraid that if a bug appeared in the competition and the game was delayed for too long due to other reasons, it would be inconvenient for the audience to leave. Thus, the time was brought forward earlier.
The venue for this competition was a famous local coliseum. It could accommodate nearly twenty thousand people and was very famous around the world.
This time, Finger Games was obviously determined to use this global finals to exact revenge. That was why they spared no expense.
The prize pool for the IOI global finals this time was three million US dollars. At the same time, Finger Games had also specially produced a skin model. 25% of the sales of the skin would also be counted into the overall prize pool.
In terms of the distribution of the bonus pool, the champion would get 50%, the runner-up would get 15%, the third and fourth teams would get 7.5% each, and the fifth to eighth teams would get 2.5% each. The remaining eight teams that did not qualify would split the remaining 10%.
In other words, the prize pool had slightly surpassed GOG’s international invitational tournament and the venue was more spectacular.
Finger Games had always been influenced by Tengda after all. They had wanted to hold a global final for a long time. However, they had been repeatedly interrupted by Tengda and failed.
They had finally managed to organize the world finals. They had to surpass GOG even if they had to sacrifice everything. This was a matter of face.
Wu Yue looked at the time and saw that it was about time. He asked Manager Lu to bring his team members back to their rooms to wash up. Then, he came down to have breakfast and prepared to set off for the opening ceremony.
FV Club’s competition would only start next week, but this week, the players would go to the venue to watch a few key battles selectively to look at the playstyles and standards of the other teams and prepare in advance.
Chapter 799 - Give Me A Performance!
December 30th, Friday, 8 AM…
Pei Qian turned off his alarm and struggled to get out of bed.
He had ma
de up his mind to revise for the past two days and had finally achieved some results. He had at least read dozens of pages of the notebook. It was a good start.
It was the same today. He would wake up in the morning and revise as much as he could while his mind was clearer in the morning. That way, he would not have to worry about being a lazy bum every afternoon and night.
He looked at his cell phone as he brushed his teeth.
“Eh? The IOI International Finals started at midnight yesterday? Oh, that’s right, it seems to be today.”
“The competition seems to be ongoing.”
The competition had started at 11 AM yesterday in Los Angeles, which was also at 3 AM Jingzhou Time this morning. They were playing six rounds a day, and they were now in the fifth round.
If the domestic audience wanted to watch the competition, they stayed up all night, watching it from dawn until morning.
Pei Qian was not that interested in IOI’s competition. After all, he had not played it before and did not know much about it. The timing was not suitable. What’s more, FV Club did not need to play in the group competitions.
Thus, he did not pay much attention to this matter. He only opened the live-stream platform to take a look after seeing the relevant news today.
Obviously, IOI’s global finals were still quite popular domestically thanks to Long Yu Corporation’s huge publicity efforts. All major news apps were promoting the news, and various live-streaming platforms had given a lot of recommendations. It looked very popular.
In addition, the GPL’s pre-season competition had just ended a few days ago. The spring competition had not started yet. During this period, many players who had nothing to do would choose to watch IOI’s global finals.
Pei Qian clicked into the live-stream and realized that there were two foreign teams that he did not know at all. They were currently in a state of equilibrium and were fighting anxiously.
The scene looked tense, but the bullet screen comments were not discussing the competition itself. Instead, fans on both sides of IOI and GOG were fighting wildly.
“Trash! The unveiling battle has been pushed to a draw. Stop playing the competition and swim back!”
“They’re fighting so ridiculously that they are not even using their best heroes anymore. They are not using their original tactics anymore but are learning from foreign teams? They can’t even learn properly!”
“It’s just like a toddler learning to walk but lost whatever they had learnt previously! The playstyle is too ugly!”
“Such a good venue and great opening ceremony. The competition was so well-respected, but the domestic team was beaten up. Isn’t that disgusting?”
“Everyone, please be more tolerant. This is only the first game. What’s more, they have to learn it. The version has already changed. They will only lose more miserably if they continue playing in accordance to the previous version.”
“F*ck, I stayed up all night, and this is all I got? If the GPL Spring Competition had not started, I would not have come to watch this lousy competition to suffer!”
“Then hurry up and go back to your GPL! It’s a rubbish game that only our countrymen play.”
“Oh, let me tell you something. The foreign market share of IOI and GOG has long been equal. GOG is not only played by our countrymen. It’s just that GOG’s domestic teams beat foreign teams.”
“I don’t know if you saw the GOG logo on the foreign club uniforms. Don’t tell me you’re blind and can’t see it?”
“It’s ridiculous enough to go against GOG’s standard for the IOI Finals. Finger Games is probably going to explode in anger.”
“That can’t be helped. The club has already accepted sponsorship. We can’t possibly force them to pay the penalty fee, right? We can only say that Finger Games did not think of this before. They did not forbid the club from accepting GOG’s sponsorship.”
“Stop arguing. GOG’s results are indeed good, but that’s only because Tengda is unreasonable! If IOI’s E-Sports environment was not so badly squeezed, how could it be so weak?”
“Didn’t Long Yu Corporation say that they brought their team to Los Angeles to play mock competitions? It’s the classic blame the environment for not being able to do well.”
No one was discussing the competition itself on the bullet screen. They were all arguing.
Pei Qian looked at the results of the previous competition and realized that both domestic teams had lost a competition today.
The first match was the opening battle, and they were defeated in thirty minutes. The fourth match, on the other hand, lasted for more than forty minutes. They did not manage to catch their last breath, and the opponents seized the opportunity to end the competition in one group battle.
They had lost both games. It could be said that the world had collapsed.
This was because the competition schedule for this competition was rather special. Each group had three teams and only one team would qualify. It was a double loop BO1, but every point was extremely important.
Losing the first round already made the qualifying situation very serious.
What was more important was that the two teams that lost were not the strongest teams in Europe and America. That was because the first seeded team of Europe and America was the same as FV Club. They did not even need to play group matches. They were waiting for the top eight.
If they could not even defeat the non-seeded teams in Europe and the United States, how could they survive when they met the strong teams?
Many viewers had stayed up until three in the morning to watch the competition. In the end, after waiting for so long, they had only watched two failed competitions. They must have been so angry that they could not sleep and were about to burst out in the live-stream.
What’s more, it wasn’t just the live-stream. The gamers on the various forums and video websites had also flamed it.
“There is such a huge gap between domestic teams and Western teams?”
“Yes, it’s a good thing.”
“FV’s team has about the same strength as these two teams. Since both teams had been defeated, FV team will probably be knocked out in the first round for the top eight. It won’t be too popular.”
Pei Qian could not help but feel optimistic. He used his cell phone to project his phone on the big television, intending to quickly watch the highlights of the previous few competitions.
On Aili Island, IOI’s official account had updated the opening ceremony of IOI’s global finals and the highlights of the previous competitions.
The opening ceremony had invited a certain European and American singer to sing the theme song. There was also a dance team doing cosplay. The overall feeling was not bad, and it was rather impressive.
The venue was huge and crowded, so it looked more impressive. It was obviously much better, compared to GOG’s international invitational tournament. That was why the bullet screen comments were more enthusiastic.
However, when it came to the main competition, the overall situation changed drastically.
Pei Qian jumped up to take a look at the two domestic teams that had lost. He realized that it was not wrong for these two teams to be scolded. If he had stayed up all night to watch these two matches, he would definitely scold them as well.
The first round of the competition was a draw. The second round of the competition had been drawn out for a long time. They had missed many opportunities before being swept away by the opponent. It was really hard to say which was more infuriating.
The key was that, perhaps because of nervousness or some other reason, these two teams did not seem to have the strength to fight. Their decisions were hesitant and their operations were restricted.
What’s more, none of the heroes that Pei Qian had seen before had appeared.
Pei Qian had seen IOI’s qualifiers in Shanghai before. He was familiar with the traditional lineups. He knew the heroes’ appearance even though he did not know what the heroes’ s
kills were.
However, they did not select heroes for the competition this time. It did not match Pei Qian’s impression of the competition at all.
Pei Qian suddenly wanted to know more about FV Club.
Ever since FV Club arrived in Los Angeles, Pei Qian had not paid much attention to them. There were more than ten hours of time difference between the two places after all. It was not very convenient to link up with them.
However, the timing was perfect. Thus, Pei Qian gave Wu Yue a video call.
At first, Pei Qian was a little worried because most stadiums had bad internal signals. If Wu Yue and the others were still at the competition venue, he might not be able to take the video call.
However, after a while, the video call connected.
“Boss Pei!”
Wu Yue was obviously not at the competition venue but in the hotel. He had used the hotel’s wireless network to make this video call, so the signal was quite stable.
Pei Qian nodded. “How’s the situation over there?”
Wu Yue immediately understood. “Boss Pei, are you worried about our situation because you saw the other two domestic teams losing badly?”
“Don’t worry about that. Our team members have been training hard all along. We don’t dare to say that we will definitely win, but we will definitely show off our skills.”
Wu Yue did not dare to brag too much. FV Club had always been training with SUG and had never touched European teams after all. He did not know what would happen if they really fought.
It would be too embarrassing if he bragged too much in front of Boss Pei and ended up losing in the top eight competition.
Pei Qian nodded. Wu Yueyi did not look very confident. It should not be a problem.
However, Pei Qian did not think that FV Club would really be eliminated in the first round of the top eight. After all, his luck was bad, whatever he hoped for never happened.
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